Mount Polley Mining Corporation and Imperial Metals are hosting public meetings this week to give locals an update on its continued remediation work from the mine’s 2014 tailings impoundment breach.
A meeting in Quesnel will take place Wednesday, Dec. 12 at the Legion Hall, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Carol Danyluk from the Ministry of Environment’s mining operations division is scheduled to attend meetings in Quesnel and Williams Lake (Dec. 14), while Douglas Hill, Ministry of Environment regional director of mining operations is slated to attend a similar meeting in Likely on Saturday (Dec. 15).
“We will be giving general updates on the mine, what’s going on in terms of operations, employment-wise, etc.,” Steve Monninger, environmental superintendent at the mine, told Black Press. “We will be talking about some of the work we’ve done on the breach.”
There will also be an overview of the conceptual remediation plan document, which includes studies that have been done and the results of the studies, Monninger added.
“We will talk about how the data from those studies is leading to the things we are doing now and will be doing in the future.”
Monninger was hired by the mine just over a year ago and lives in Likely.
The Mount Polley tailings breach occurred in 2014, sending more than 24 million cubic metres of mining waste and forest debris into pristine rivers, streams and lakes, such as Polley Lake and Quesnel Lake.
Several studies have been underway on Quesnel Lake, which bore the brunt of the breach, to determine the lasting impacts.
The company was never fined for the breach, believed to be the biggest spill in Canada’s mining history.
In September this year, Engineers and Geoscientists British Columbia announced disciplinary hearings for three people in relation to the tailings impoundment breach. The disciplinary hearings are scheduled for 2019.
-With files from Angie Mindus
READ MORE: Disciplinary hearings announced regarding Mount Polley Mine breach
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